4 August 2014

Anticipation

6th August 2014

Most commentators were last night declaring it a draw on points, as Alex Salmond met Alistair Darling in the first televised debate on the country's constitutional future before polling day. In front of a 350 strong audience of voters at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, the leaders of the Yes and No campaigns fought to persuade Scots that they would be better off inside the Union or independent.

While the charismatic SNP leader had been widely expected to outclass the former chancellor of the exchequer, the Labour MP fought back effectively in some of the debate's most spirited exchanges. Darling, never the most lively of politicians but a forensic master of detail, pressed the First Minister on the economy, jobs and Scotland's future defence. Clearly well-prepared, the leader of the No campaign dominated the first round, landing body-blow after body-blow on the First Minister's separation plans under cross-examination. In one of the debate's testiest sequences, on an independent Scotland's currency, Darling demanded, "When I was at the treasury, we expected our politicians do to their sums properly. Where are yours, Alex?"

But heavy-weight Salmond didn't let down his guard. Parrying the blow, the experienced Nationalist debater hit back hard, knocking Darling off balance on social justice and the detail of the Labour Party's plans for more devolution, but failed to land the anticipated knock-out punch on his opponent. Widely perceived as over-confident and a tough, uncompromising debater, the First Minister's performance proved low key and avoided the anticipated low blows, instead talking up the benefits of independence and repeatedly contrasting the "positive" character of the Yes campaign with the "dreich, dreary dismalism of Project Fear."

John Curtice, Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, said "this was a respectable performance from the First Minister. But in truth, Alex Salmond failed to deliver the gamechanger tonight which the Yes campaign so dearly need if they are to bridge the gap in the polls and pull ahead."

In the STV spin room, pundit and Salmond adviser, Andrew Wilson commented, "this was a great performance from Alex. Upbeat, optimistic for our future, making the positive case for independence. I like Alistair, but I'm afraid all he had to say tonight was old news, old scare stories, and critically, no new vision for a better, fairer Scotland."

A Better Together spokesman said last night, "Alex Salmond is one of the most skilled political debaters in Scotland, but Alistair more than held his own, despite expectations. This was a below par performance from a struggling politician who knows that Scotland rejects his muddled, uncosted, unwanted plans for separation."

17 comments
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You missed the bits near the end where they had a studio discussion with a panel of journalists discussing how well the apparatchiks had spun it in the "spin room", which cut to a panel of academics discussing how well the journalists had captured the meaning of the spin... followed by adverts.

Ohh clever stuff. Have never heard (or seen) the Kennedy / Nixon debate which has usually been framed in terms of Nixon as the radio winner and Kennedy the TV winner.

Both were tricksters anyway and who is to say Nixon (a Hawick scrum face as George Fraser said) was worse than Kennedy?

There are closer barneys to hand - it is said for example, that Nicola Sturgeon won her debates against men but her debate against Johann Lamont was a draw. I saw wee bits of the debates and my view is that Nicola just pistol-butted her way through the men in Johnson style and met her roughhouse match in Johann - ie it was all sound and fury and the scoresheets didn't amount to much really.

I guess the Darling Salmond debate will be a civilised affair - not much heat but not a lot of light either.

Come on, who else turned over to BBC 2 and watched the history of our streets on Aberdeen. STV streaming has come in for a lot of stick as well. Still not voting come September. Highlights looked like Darling was the winner and what both sides hid was they were aiming for the women vote.

"Most commentators were last night declaring it a draw on points ... "

Maybe I have been reading entirely different media, but I think that is a highly-optimistic way of putting it (if you support the separatist/independence side of the debate). I don't think it was a knock-out for either side, by any means, but on balance I think Darling came out ahead; as someone who detests more or less everything Labour stands for, barring wishing to maintain the Union with the rest of the UK, I rated him rather better than FM Salmond, who I think wasted a major opportunist to show himself as a statesman rather than an opportunist. I'm not going to pretend I am sorry at how [poorly] he performed, but I was surprised he fluffed his first outing so comprehensively. Both need to do some homework, however, for any return match.

Darling didn't lose so in that sense he won. The challenger has to make the pace to win people over and by any measure Salmond didn't do that. Having said that it appears as if undecided and 'less engaged' viewers took a somewhat different view of the whole thing.

Committed Yes and No supporters were never the target audience (or at least shouldn't have been!) so the real test of the debate will be how it plays out over the next couple of weeks.

The truth about Nixon and Kennedy was not who won the debate, in the sense of what happened on the night, but rather who the public thought won it and that was Kennedy. After the monochrome 50's enough voters wanted something more and Nixon could never deliver that. Hope versus Fear anyone?

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